The Future of our Virtual Selves.

Over my real life, which I consider significant but many others say I’m still just a youngster, I’ve seen technology gain so much over our lives I many times sit and wonder what the future holds.  Before I begin my rant let me start with a little real life history.  When I was a small child I was introduced to computers by the learning games. While I cannot remember specifically what those games were some of my oldest memories are of me being in wonderment of the sights and sounds laid out before me.  I remember the joy I used to get playing what were games to me, but were actually tools teaching me about colors, shapes and numbers.

As I continued to grow computers were always in my life.  My first computer was a Commodore 64.  I had that computer for about eight years and over that time I learned I had a talent to be able to make it do what I wanted it to do.  I learned programming, well the BASIC language that came with it and with that I found my other loves of math and science, specifically physics.  As my life moved on so did my C-64 as it was replaced with my first DOS computer.  A Tandy T-1000.  A hand-me-down of my fathers, it had a modem thing built into it and a giant 20 MB hard drive!  While that computer was simplistic even then it was a significant step up in my life.  I learned a whole new world called online bulletin boards and then soon after, the World Wide Web.  I became connected to a whole new community.  Mostly of perverts.

Over the years I’ve seen many upgrades just to the personal computer market alone.  In business and industry, and in the military computers have transformed how we work, how we live, how we entertain ourselves and how we protect ourselves.   Miniature machines now capable of many things has given rise to many wonders, including virtual three-dimensional worlds like we’ve never seen before.  Now virtual worlds are everywhere, from the Sims, to World of Warcraft and yes, to Second Life, probably one of the most open ended virtual environments in the world.  And with it being free, everybody has the promise to start over as a better looking, cooler version of themselves.

So in the short term, what may be next for Linden Labs and Second Life in particular?  One of the possibilities is that Second Life could become the next social media outlet.  With the creation of Twitter. Facebook, LinkedIn and more who’s to say that Second Life could be an extension of that phenomenon?  Already today avatars have Twitter accounts and Facebook pages.  Social media does not only extend to the real world any longer.  Eventually Linden Labs will discover new ways to earn revenue from Second Life.  One day our browsers could be 3-D representations of web sites.  Our avatars 3-D representations of ourselves, real or imagined, surfing the metaverse for not only virtual goods, but for real items like we do today using simple two dimensional websites.  Second Life could be one of the greatest targeted-marketing opportunities in the history of advertising.  But that’s just the start.

How long will we be happy being tied to our laptops or desktops?  Technology advances at an incredible pace.  Morre’s Law states that every two years the number of transistors on integrated circuits will double.  This has held true since the 1960’s when he described the trend.  While current futurists believe the law will stop around 2019, when we are creating circuits at the molecular level and can’t go any farther others believe that new technologies being worked on today will continue our advance in information processing for many years to come.  But think about what that also means.  We are very close now to building computer systems where size doesn’t matter.  Where circuits capable of huge computations are common and nano-technology is the new engineering of the world.  What does that mean to us, the Second Life avatar?  Well for one thing who needs a monitor or screen?  Our eyeballs themselves can become the monitor.

Head’s up displays are used today by the military and are becoming more and more common in the private sector.  Pilots and soldiers use them to gain insight on strategic, tactical and battlefield conditions in a real time manner.  Companies are now looking at ways to make those clunky visors move to something the general public will love.  As our technology continues to shrink in size to a point where size doesn’t matter, a time will come where devices will beam the image directly onto the back of your retina using a simple set of sunglasses and a Bluetooth connection.  Don’t believe me? Google is looking to launch their Video Glasses this year and Vuzix has a set of glasses that can show theater quality video using sunglasses that look fairly normal to the casual person.  Oculas VR is also providing new technology that gamer developers are now looking to include in their new games that provides a total immersive experience for gamers.

Another technology that will allow us to be more mobile is the advances in wireless telecommunications.  Today I can use a laptop anywhere in my home to play Second Life.  The wireless network I have provides me plenty of bandwidth. But what happens when I move out of range? I’m still a prisoner in my own home when it comes to being “virtual”. But soon that will change. Today the 4G networks are providing more bandwidth, and more content to devices specifically made to leverage the technology. Not only are smart phones tied to 4G but so are tablet computers such as the Apple IPad and other media pad devices like the Amazon Kindle.  While playing SL on a global commercial wireless network is on the technology fringe I see in the next five years this technology being a standard worldwide.  Let’s just hope our wireless bills don’t exponentially grow too.

In the future we may have the ability to have completely augmented vision incorporating real time global wireless communications, and images sent directly to our eyes. While I can see many advantages to this in many way I also see a major disadvantage. Commercialism. Since we will be at the mercy of large corporations feeding information to us it wouldn’t take long to have that augmented vision plastering advertising on just about everything you look at. See that hot girl walking towards you, up flashes where she dances at the local strip club and at what times. Passing the hot dog stand and you see a giant wiener holding a menu up, even if you’re not hungry. Yes everywhere we look we could see signs plastered on every surface possible. Our virtual augmentation could become nothing more than another means to get the masses to spend what little free cash they have.

So to continue on our little journey to the future what else could provide us a better virtual experience?  Some of the newer technologies coming out today involve how we think.  Specifically how our brains control our bodies.  Over the last few decades extensive study has gone into how our brains function.  Not only do we have a better understanding of how our synapses work inside of the brain but also what regions of the brain perform what tasks. Today new prosthetic devices are being invented that are controlled directly by the brain waves emitted from our minds.  While it takes a bit of learning from the individual to “think” how they want to limb to move the fact that we can control devices using a technique where an indirect connection to the nervous system is employed is fascinating.  How would this technique be used in a newer version of virtual technology?  The implications are pretty exciting!

Consider a device that is totally mobile, small enough to wear on your head like eye glasses and at the same time allows you to control the device via non-intrusive methods with your mind.  No more mice, no more keyboards, no monitors, no large computers or bulky laptops, no wires, just you relaxing in that Lazy-Boy recliner, moving around in a virtual world, that only you can see, that you can control with your thoughts, in a high definition almost real-like environment.  I believe that this is the next step to modern computing.  Once we have achieved that technical capability not only will Second Life or whatever virtual world you roam become a much closer reality, but computing in general and connecting to others to do what we do today in a non-virtual environment will be open to us.

Conventional web pages would no longer be necessary.  The internet would become a true 3-D environment.  Not only for games or simulations but for conceivably anything we do.  This includes our daily chores like shopping for food, or working on a new project proposal at work.  Instead of just typing up words on a document or putting three dimensional drawings in a PowerPoint presentation we will be able to use simple tools like the simple prims we have today to create a virtual environment to express our ideas.  Web sites will become “web sims”.  Our avatars will become more of an extension of ourselves in real life and just as it is today when we play they can still be our expression of whatever fantasy we wish to portray.  But does it have to stop here?

I don’t believe so.  Many futurists believe not only will our technology become smaller and more compact, but with the benefit of smaller size there will come massive computing power on a scale that dwarfs today’s top microprocessors.  There will be a time, probably in many of our lives where computers will have the same capability to “think” as humans.  And that all past and current human knowledge will be able to be held electronically in real time.  This is a point that a technological singularity would occur.  Today it cannot be predicted exactly what will happen when this eventuality happens. There have been many movies like Terminator that portray a world taken over by electronic minds.  Personally I don’t believe that will be the case.  Even when computers are intelligent enough to write their own software, the basic premise of why an electronic intelligence exists will still need to be programmed by humans.  Basically we still have control over the basic nature of an electronic intelligence.  I see more a HAL type computer envisioned in 2001 A Space Odyssey being the future and not an electronic Armageddon.

With the technology of miniaturization driving computing forward it is also driving forward many advances in nanotechnology.  Now you may be wondering how nanotechnology can assist in our virtual playground. Well beyond the obvious ideas of incredible lifelike video let’s really take a stab at some really whacked out ideas. One of the many and most interesting applications with nanotechnology is in the medical field. Today we have to correct most of our serious medical ailments by using technology that has been around since the dawn of human civilization.  Basically we have to use a knife and cut open the body to get at whatever the doctor needs to fix.  But what if we could engineer nano-bots with a specific purpose of correcting whatever medical ailment you may happen to suffer.  From a broken bone to cancer, tiny machines could be injected into you to specifically move to the problem area and deal with the situation they were designed and programmed to correct.  While it sounds creepy today so did the idea of putting camera’s into one’s body to get a better view creep people out not to long ago.

While using nano-bots to improve our health is a benefit, with that technology, and with the ongoing knowledge of our brains, couples with a computing power unimaginable by today’s standards, is it not within the realm of impossibility to have nano-bots build a direct electronic interface inside of our minds?  To merge our thoughts, our feelings, our very being to an electronic world?  Crazy you say?  This is not as far off as you may think. Our children or grandchildren may very well obtain “internet connectivity implants” in their minds at a young age to assist them in learning.  And think about what that does for any type of virtual existence.  The true question is when the existence of being able to connect our minds directly to a networked real time virtual reality happens, is that reality truly “virtual” any longer?

Think of the games we would be able to play.  Games that are so smart, games that can feel our thoughts, or our feelings so well that they could react to them.  To play a game and be in that epic space fight not only would seem real to you, but it would feel real.  You would experience true exhilaration of blowing up your opponent and feel true fear knowing that you yourself may be vanquished. Would you really stay and fight then or run? When we get to the point that we cannot differentiate between our real environment and a virtual one, do virtual environments then be considered real?

So are we done with our little trek down a possible future of virtual reality?  Not yet.  So far the premise of all of this technology revolves around us, the human race, of us living our lives in a similar manner as we do today.  We are born, we grow and we learn, we work, we love, we sacrifice and raise children and eventually we die.  But if we have computers that rival or exceed the human brain’s capacity to hold thought, feelings, ideas and memories and if we have the medical technology to tap into that electronically.  Then what keeps us from moving our being from corporeal bodies to electronic minds?  Could this be our dream of immortality personified?  Think of the implications of this.  If we move into an electronic world are we still ourselves?  If we give up our bodies for immortality does our soul come with us? Does the inner essence of what makes us who we are follow us to the electronic realm or are we merely electronic copies of an entity that once existed in a biological form that now exists in a permanent “virtual” reality?

The future always hold wondrous marvels to be explored and found.  This small look into a possible future by me is just that, a possibility.  I stayed away from some of the scarier thoughts such as what corporations or governments would do if they had complete access to our minds.  I hope that mankind is intelligent enough to know that above all privacy is still the one fundamental freedom humans must have to be considered human.  The philosophy I’ve described here does have a utopian aspect in it for sure and with mankind’s lust for power and wealth, we have some serious evolving left to do as a species and we had better hurry.  Technology is moving forward at an insane pace.  The human race will need to learn how to use these advances for the betterment of mankind and not for the advancement of power and wealth for a few.  The only other options we have is to reject our own technological advancements and revert back to a more simple life or to allow those in power to take us over completely and live to fulfill the dreams and desires of only the very powerful few.  I hope for our children’s sake it is neither and that we have the fortitude and intelligence to embrace our technological marvels and use them wisely, virtually or otherwise.